The present invention relates to sawmills, and in particular to a modular portable sawmill which performs the basic functions of a conventional sawmill.
The lumber industry has reached a condition of severe depression because of a number of factors. The retail price of lumber has risen to the point where public resistance is such that a further increase in prices will drastically curtail demand. Yet, at the same time, the cost in producing the lumber is rising inexorably. The lumber industry is caught between price stagnation and cost inflation and as a result, only the most efficient lumber operations are currently profitable, and less efficient operations are in the process of being abandoned. For even the most efficient lumber operations, the return on the operation is diminished to the point where it is minimal and increased capitalization of such operations is commercially impractical.
Although many factors enter into the escalation of the costs of lumber production, the two most significant factors are first, increases in wages paid employees, and second, dwindling supplies of large diameter timber adjacent existing conventional sawmills. Conventional sawmills are only partially automated and require a large number of laborers. As a result, the cost of lumber production is inexorably tied to wage inflation for existing sawmills. In addition, such mills are adapted to process relatively large diameter logs. The supply of such logs adjacent existing conventional sawmills has, to a large extent, been depleted. Thus, the sawmills are forced to operate using small logs which they are not equipped to handle efficiently, or must pay increased transportation costs to bring the logs from outlying areas to the sawmill.
Even though the supply of large diameter timber in the vicinity of existing sawmills has been depleted, there remain other sources of timber. Specifically, smaller diameter timber exists in large quantities in many areas. In addition, small and large diameter timber exists in quantity in locations remote from existing sawmills. However, as discussed above, such supplies of timber cannot be efficiently harvested by conventional sawmill facilities.